An undercover officer did not instigate a confrontation with police and officers were justified in confronting dozens of protesters headed to the 16th Street Mall on the first day of the Democratic National Convention, Denver’s independent police monitor said Monday.

A reported confrontation between Denver police Cmdr. Kris Kroncke and an undercover officer was not an attempt to inflame an already stressful situation, independent monitor Richard A. Rosenthal wrote in a letter to Taylor Pendergrass, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado.

“There was no screaming, fighting or any other attempt to incite the crowd or police,” Rosenthal wrote. “In fact, the ‘struggle’ consisted of nothing more than the mere act of pulling away slightly. It would be reasonable to expect the undercover officer to put up at least small struggle in order to avoid his identity being disclosed to the protesters watching his arrest.”

The group said Denver police ignored their manual, which says that, when possible, clear instructions should be communicated to a crowd and that sufficient time should be allowed for a crowd to comply with the instructions. The group also complained about the detention of Cecil Bethea, an 80-year-old man who had been at the library and was attempting to walk to a bus stop to catch a bus home when he was stopped by officers who thought he was a protester.

He said that members of the crowd were putting bandannas over their faces in an apparent attempt to avoid being identified and to protect themselves from the use of gas or pepper spray.

“In this case, the DPD command had a reasonable belief that the crowd that was leaving Civic Center Park and heading toward the 16th Street Mall was doing so with the intent to attack people and property on the 16th Street Mall,” Rosenthal wrote.

“The crowd had already ignored police orders to remain in the Civic Center Park. Members of the crowd were seen obtaining feces and urine from toilets in the Civic Center area,” Rosenthal wrote.

The ACLU did not return calls Monday for comment on Rosenthal’s letter.

Rosenthal said Bethea’s detention was justified until officers could ascertain that he was not involved in criminal activity. Once officers were able to verify his story that he was not involved in the protest, he was released, Rosenthal said.

He agreed that some officers incorrectly stated in court documents that at one point they believed the demonstrators had been told to disperse by PA system, loudspeaker or microphone.

But Rosenthal said he had no reason to believe the officers making these statements knew them to be false or incorrect. Instead, it was clear the situation involved multiple officers from multiple agencies and that any inaccuracies or mistakes are attributable to poor communications between the officers who initially confronted the protesters and those who eventually made the arrests, he said.

The ACLU also claimed that the Police Department improperly withheld 15 minutes of dispatch tapes that were relevant to the arrests and subsequent charges against the protesters and may have exonerated them.

But Rosenthal said that he had been informed by the City Attorney’s Office Prosecution Unit that a Denver judge had ruled the evidence was not “exculpatory” — that is, it did not aid the protesters — and that the city did not need to produce the missing 15 minutes of dispatch tapes.

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